Hunter Valley coal mine expansion approval bad for environment, jobs

Steve O’Brien, the Socialist Alliance candidate for Newcastle in next year’s New South Wales, said the September 30 decision of the NSW Independent Planning Commission to approve the Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) Mine Continuation Project, the largest coal mine expansion ever proposed in, was a very bad decision.

“It is bad for our Pacific neighbours who are already feeling the effects of rising sea levels,” O’Brien told Green Left. “It is bad for our environment because it will worsen the bush fires, floods and other catastrophic climate events. And it’s also bad for workers.

“We��ve been told by the Chris Minns Labor government that 1500 jobs have been saved by this decision, but that figure needs to be seriously interrogated.

“Who really trusts Glencore, which owns these mines, to keep 1500 jobs until 2045?

“Glencore will continue to cut jobs and the number left when the mine eventually closes in 2045, will be a lot less than 1500.

“Glencore is in the business of making profits for its owners. In the capitalist system, that invariably means cutting jobs.”

O’Brien said that NSW Labor is being duplicitous, deliberately lying to working people about climate change and the serious challenge that it poses for this country.

“To keep the capitalist class onside, Labor has to make sure that every last bit of coal is dug out of the Hunter Valley. Glencore’s boss actually said the last shovel full of coal that comes out anywhere in the world will come out of its HVO mines.”

Labor is totally pro-fossil fuels but pretends to be pro-climate action and pro-environment, he added.

“Governments can’t be serious about taking action on the climate while approving a huge coal mine expansion, which will add 800 million tonnes of carbon emissions.

“As The Climate Council has pointed out, this is more than seven times NSW’s annual climate pollution.”

O’Brien said this duplicity of the Labor party creates confusion and breeds cynicism about the issue of climate change in the working class.

“The climate crisis is real. People are facing fires, floods and other catastrophic climate disasters all the time. Yet the Labor party acts like it doesn’t exist when it comes to pushing mine expansions like HVO.

“Greg Mullins, a former Commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW, has warned that this is a decision that every community in NSW will end up paying for —in the form of bushfires, floods, heatwaves and droughts. Just in the Hunter, more than 12,000 homes are already at high risk of becoming uninsurable.

“The billionaire class and the fossil fuel companies welcome the cynicism about the climate emergency. They love to see the working class divided and, in particular, they are very happy to see the Hunter Valley’s working class divided over this giant coal mine expansion.

“We need working class unity if we are going to ensure that these communities have something left when the coal mines are gone,” O’Brien stressed.

“In the upper Hunter Valley, many problems need addressing, such as public transport between the different towns. They need schools and hospitals to keep up with the growing demand. In addition there is the question of housing and tapping the full potential of renewable energy from solar power and wind power.

“We all agree that the future needs to include jobs for these communities, so should also agree that we need to tax the fossil fuel companies and the rest of the billionaire class, which doesn’t pay their fair share of tax. This is how we can fund a just transition to a post-coal future in the Hunter Valley.

“The fossil fuel companies and the banks that are behind them have made billions exploiting the working–class communities in the Hunter Valley over many years. They shouldn’t be allowed to extract the last bit of profit from the dying coal industry and take off scot-free.”